Page 26 of Calling on the Matchmaker
From the first moment he’d met her, when she’d brushed him off and treated him like a little child, he’d known she was different from other women. That meant if he wanted to win her affection, he had to come up with a different approach.
And the truth was, hedidwant to win her affection. With every passing day, his desire to win her was only growing. But winning her would be a challenge. Finola Shanahan herself was a challenge, and he’d relish the chance to play this little game of hers.
As the door to the building closed behind the children, Lorette’s eyes brimmed with sudden tears. “You’re not sore with me, are you, Riley?”
“Now, now, sweet love, of course not.” No one could ever be sore with Lorette, at least not for long. “Why don’t I help you with a list for Madigan? Then we’ll be able to give him the most ... beneficial information.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m certain. We want to assist Finola in every way possible, so she can make the right decision, don’t we?”
Lorette blinked away the glistening of tears and offered hima tremulous smile. “She doesn’t realize how lucky she is to have a man like you.”
“We’ll make certain she learns.” He would indeed. “Let’s find a piece of paper and pencil and get started with a list right away.”
Lorette nodded and turned to open the door.
“The first thing you can add is that I don’t like to hold hands.”
Lorette paused, then shifted to look at him with raised brows. “You don’t?”
He hesitated. He needed to be careful with how vehement he was with what he supposedly didn’t like, or Lorette would suspect he was being disingenuous. And he didn’t want Finola to guess the list was entirely fake either.
His mind scrambled for the best way to sound convincing, and he knew of only one way. “I’m not ready to be close to a woman ... in that way...”
Lorette’s face quickly flamed. “I’m sorry, Riley. I know it must be hard to imagine yourself...” Her voice trailed off with a hint of mortification.
A pang of guilt flashed through him. He was being deceitful to his sister and hated that he had to do so. But in this case, it was best to let her believe he wasn’t eager for intimacy when in fact it had become all too clear over the past week since seeing Finola in her unmentionables that he was more than ready for it.
He dropped to a whisper again. “I’m doing this for Dad, because he wants me to find a wife.” Even if it had become more than that now, the gentle reminder to Lorette would only make his list more believable.
“He’s really happy with your willingness to get married, to be sure.”
His dad had been more than a little thrilled with each of the updates regarding the plans for him to marry Finola. In some ways, the match had given his dad fresh energy and life, maybehad even contributed to his starting to feel better. Riley didn’t want to consider how a failure to succeed with Finola would affect his dad’s health for the worse.
All the more reason to thwart Finola before she thwarted him.
“Let’s make sure to add no touching,” he whispered as gravely as he could manage. “Especially of my hair.”
Lorette gave a quick nod.
“And absolutely no kissing. That would be much too difficult to handle.”
If Lorette’s face could get any redder, she’d rival a flame itself.
“Hugging is out of the question,” he added.
“This is going to be quite a list.” Lorette’s whisper was more of a squeak.
The guilt pushed up again, but he ignored it. “I’m sure Madigan will understand when you explain why. And since Finola’s concerned about the hastiness of our union, I’m sure she’ll be grateful that I want to take things very, very slow.”
“Yes, you’re right, Riley. And so thoughtful.”
“No love letters or tokens of her affection either. That would be painful too. For now, it would be best if she treats me as a friend and nothing more.”
“I agree. Building a friendship is important.”
Itwasgoing to be quite the list when he finished. And he couldn’t keep from smiling at the thought of what Finola would do when she saw it.
